Character of Obedienc (Sunday School Sunday)

21st February, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Acts 5:17-32
Main Idea: Obey Authorities
Objectives: To teach adults and children to obey authorities.

A. Introduction
- I believe all human beings love their children. Do you love your children? You do.
- You always desire to give them the best, right? What is your best gift to your children beside eternal life?
- You may give all kinds of valuable things to them but the most important thing you must give is Jesus. You must disciple your children to be Christ-like.
- How to do help your children to be Christ-like? Train him in his Christ-like characters; godly characters. Christ-like character building is much more important than anything on earth. You need money, education health and other very important things and values, but if you miss out characters, you cannot be a successful person. Do you want yourself and your children to be successful persons? Do not use the wrong yardstick to measure success. The fundamental factor to work on for success is character. Do not use money, high qualification, connection with the influential, etc, to measure success.
- The character I like to focus on this morning is obedience. I believe this is one of the areas where parents cry out for. I pray that my sermon this morning is not for your information only but it is very much for your application. And for it to happen, you need to spend time with them.
- The character of obedience is a mark of Jesus disciples like Peter and other apostles. In their early of ministry and mission, they were being persecuted by jail sentence and even death for preaching Christ and his teachings. Despite warning not to preach Christ, and I believe even threat of death, they did not give in. They declared in verse 29, “We must obey God rather than men!” Such was the character of obedience of the early disciples.

B. The Character of Obedience
- What is this character all about? Let us read out the definition: Quickly and cheerfully carrying out the wise direction of those who are responsible for me.
- The character of obedience can be represented by a kind of bird called wood ducks. Wood ducks are attentive to their parents’ voices, even before they hatch. Twenty-four hours after hatching, they must obey their mother in jumping from their high nest, or they will be left behind to die.

C. Applications.
- Obedience in the home includes: (let us read it out)
- 1. Establishing practical guidelines of good character for the family.
- 2. Parents teaching their children why an activity is right or wrong.
- 3. Children understanding the purpose of guidelines and the consequences for failing to obey them.
- 4. Sons and daughters having the boldness to reject wrong actions in order to obey parents, despite other pressures.
- 5. Parents being role models to their children by honoring their own parents.
- 6. I will: obey my authorities immediately; have a cheerful attitude; complete all that I am expected to do; go the “extra mile”; not obey the wrong command.

D. Rewards of Obedience
- 1. Protection. The road to success often includes painful lessons that obedience protects us from repeating.
- 2. Provision. Parents and other other authorities enjoy rewarding an obedient spirit in those under them by giving to needs and wants.
- 3. Direction. An obedient spirit in sons and daughters motivates their parents to give the wisest possible counsel for the decisions they face.
- Thomas Fuller says, “Obedience is much seen in little things than in great.”

E. Conclusion
- Obey God in the person of Jesus by obeying authorities.

Ash Wednesday - Repentance

17th Feb, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

2Samuel 12:1-23
Main Idea: To cause people to repent.
Objective: To result in the congregation realizing that they will suffer the consequence of sin like King David and need to repent.

A. Introduction
- Today, on 17th February, is Ash Wednesday for churches throughout the world. Most Methodist Churches do not conduct the service but this year we do it in order to uncover its meaning. By doing so, we will not lose our rich christian heritage on Ash Wednesday.
- What is it? The first day of Lent, the Wednesday of the seventh week before Easter. The day gets its name from the ceremonial imposition of ashes on the foreheads of worshippers in the liturgy of the day. This is a rite that goes back to the 10th century. The main idea behind it is to do with repentance in view of Christ has done on the Cross.
- In the Roman rite, and in the 1985 service produced by the Liturgical Commission of the Church of England, the imposition of ashes takes place in the Holy Communion after the reading of the gospel and preaching of sermon, although the Holy Communion may not be necessary.
- The ceremony consists of a blessing or prayer over the ashes, traditionally made by burning the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday, followed by imposition of ashes on the forehead accompanied by a verbal formula. The formula is either a reminder of human mortality or an exhortation to be committed to the gospel or both.
- This combination of word and the symbol of the ash is a powerful spiritual reminder to get us to begin the season of Lent. What is Lent? It is for christian practice. It is an annual season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, beginning with Ash Wednesday and lasting 40 weekdays to Easter. Roman Catholic Churches and Anglican Churches have been doing it all the time. For Methodist Churches, we are not consistent with it. For our GMC, in view of the Chinese New Year, we start our 40 days of fast and prayer on 22nd February until 2nd April, that includes Saturdays and Sundays.
- For us, the important thing is we catch the idea of repentance, and through fasting and praying for 40days, we focus on the need for repentance.
- To help us to reflect on the subject of repentance, I preach to you the repentance of King David.

B. The Repentance of King David.
- Here is a famous real life biblical story of a king committing the sin of adultery, breaking one of the ten commandments: Thou shall not commit adultery. I do not want to go into the details of how he did it. It was all written in Chapter 11. I just want to highlight a few points of on repentance. Notice the proses of King David’s repentance.
- Take note that he thought nobody knew his sin of adultery; he thought he could pretend to be righteous and escape from prophet Nathan’s eyes, the servant of God. Eventually, the prophet confronted him with the story of the rich man, the poor man and his ewe lamb and took him to task by proclaiming straight at his nose, “You are the man.”
- Then, prophet Nathan proclaim a series of judgement of God on him. The idea of suffering from the consequence of sin is very strong here. It is very true in the New Testament, where the Holy Spirit strike dead Ananias and Saphira for lying the Holy Spirit. Prophet Nathan now said David’s house would have to suffer from killings for he killed Uriah using the sword of Hitittes, in order to rob Uriah’s wife. There will be calamity on his family. His wives would be given to those who were close to him; God strike dead the child whom Uriah’s wife had borne to David.
- Will all these consequences as a result of the sin of adultery that King David suffered, God is still very gracious to him. In verse 13, prophet Nathan assured King David that God had forgiven his sin and he was not going to die. But take note, this is only after King David confessed and repent. He confessed in the beginning of verse 13, “I have sinned against the Lord.” He showed repentance through his fasting and prayer to God that God would spare his child.

C. Applications.
- With this, learnt drill our mind into a few ideas about repentance in this Ash Wednesday and this season of Lent.
- Firstly, notice that for repentance of a person to take place, he or she must realize that he has sin against God by breaking one of God’s law. So, you need to confess your sins.
- Secondly, there is no way you can hide from God’s wrath or punishment. No matter what you do to replace the damage, God will not buy it. His punishment will take its course naturally. God is our creator and He is all knowing, he knows when we sin against Him.
- Thirdly, we must realize that the serious consequences of sin, in the case of King David, his whole family was affected. Think of the sins of hatred, anger, bitterness, revenge, greed, pride, lust, self-centredness, drunkenness, etc that can affect your family if you commit those sins.
- Fourthly, repentance takes feelings of sorrow, remorseful (regret) and realizing you are wrong, you have broken God’s law, you have sinned against God. King David showed his sorrow through his fast and prayer.
- Fifthly, repentance requires action of reconciliation, compensation, etc. In repentance, you let go of your pride and everything, you just want to get right with God and people.

D. Conclusion
- Have we any sin to repent from in this season of Lent? May we take this year’s lent more seriously and allow God to show our unrepentant hearts in terms of wrong attitudes, thinkings, actions, beliefs etc, so that we can repent from them.

Crown of Righteousness

14th February, 2010 (CNY Service)

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

2Tim 4:1-8

Main Idea: The eternal reward of Crown of Righteousness
Objectives: a. To learn from Paul to persevere till the end of his life in his faith b. To learn from Paul to pursue crown of righteousness.

A. Introduction
- For Chinese New Year, for Chinese, we always desire blessings during festive season like this. Most of these blessings are concentrated on good health, career success, success in our children’s education, success in business, harmony at home and with colleagues, etc.
- And lots of people make a lot of sense out of the year of tiger. For those who are born in the year of tiger, the writings say what they must do to be blessed. For those who are not born in the year of tiger, the writings also say how they can be blessed if they live accordingly.
- For us, Christians and disciples of Jesus, as long as we love Jesus and people, the presence of God is with us, we are blessed.
- But for Christians, and disciples like you and me, we have one blessing to pursue on earth that will decide whether we get it or not when we see Jesus in heaven. This blessing is called the Crown of Righteousness in the New Testament. It is something that Apostle Paul pursued very much on earth.

B. See what Apostle Paul gets at the end of his ministry and life.
- When Apostle Paul wrote 2Timothy, he was imprisoned in Rome again under Emperor Nero in between AD 66 to AD 67. In 2Tim 1:16, he said he was in chain like a common criminal.
- One of the reasons he wrote the letter to Timothy was to show his concern about the welfare of the churches during the time of persecution under Nero. He admonishes Timothy to guard the gospel (1:13, 14), to persevere in it (3:14), to keep on preaching it (4:2) and, if necessary, to suffer for it (1:8; 2:3).
- Let us see what parting words he said to Timothy, his disciple at the end of his life. From verses 1 to 5, you can see how focused he was on Christ. In fact, from verse 1, you see that he charged Timothy that in view of Christ, who will judge the living and the dead, his appearing and his kingdom, Timothy must move on to preach the gospel against all odds, keep the truth and be an evangelist who discharges all the duties of his ministry.
- Paul knew he was going to die soon, so he wrote in verse 6, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.” Paul sees his approaching death as the pouring out of his life as an offering to Christ.
- As he looks over his 30 years of ministry as an apostle, he likened himself to be an athelete who had engaged successfully in a contest, who fought the good fight, finished the race and the most important of all, he kept the faith, in verse 7. There is something significant here. As an athelete, it takes a long process of tough training to prepare for the race. Paul was in the race, he prepared and trained well. He was in the tough race of preaching the gospel and making disciples. He persevered and never gave up on Christ’s calling for him despite persecutions. He persevered in not only believing the faith of salvation in Christ, but also defending it and preaching it and most important of all, making disciples with it. I find that the last part is the most challenging. That is one very important reason why he wrote so many letters, he wanted to make disciples among his converts.
- Whatever he said and did, became Timothy’s example and it becomes our example to follow even until today.
- With all his focus in Christ, with all his efforts put in for Christ, in making disciples, now, he awaits with certainty, for the crown of righteousness, which Christ, the righteous judge will give him.
- Now, I am very excited about what Paul said in verse 8, he was telling us that there is eternal reward of crown of righteousness which Jesus is going to give us if we can persevere in keeping our faith like Paul. After working so hard for Christ in keeping the faith, Paul said he was going to get the crown; and not only himself, but also for those who long for his appearing. It means those who are faithful to Christ and persevere to see Him.
- Paul uses the metaphor of a wreath (the crown) given to the winner in a race. The crown of righteousness could refer to: (1). A crown given as a reward for a righteous life; (2). A crown consisting of righteousness. (3). A crown given righteously by a righteous judge.
- Paul expects Jesus to give him crown of righteousness at the end of his life. Do you expect Jesus to do so? Those who do not do so, that means you are not even prepared to put in efforts like Paul in order to gain the crown of righteousness. Those who do so, you would like your life’s priorities to be changed and pursue things on earth of eternal significance. It matters to you whether you obey Jesus or not.

C. Applications.
- a. In view of the future rewards of the crown of righteousness, your attitudes towards ministry; towards Jesus, must be very different now. You have to recognize and realize that at the end of the day, when you face Jesus at His judgement throne, He will decide whether you get the crown of righteousness or not. You have to reexamine your life how much you obey Jesus in your life; how much your life has made a difference in others’ life for Jesus; how much you introduce Jesus to others.
- b. In view of the future crown of righteousness reward, you must now be an expert in investing your life on earth. Everybody has a life span on earth; your seasons on earth, etc. Your time is very limited on earth, in view of the future reward of crown of righteousness, you need to see how best to use your time. One thing you cannot afford to use your precious time to sin against God, Jesus. For example, do not use your time to hate someone; harbour grudges against someone; to sin against God by watching pornography; to get angry with your wife, your husband, your children, your colleagues, etc. If I were you, by all means love the people around you, no matter how tough it is, pray for the Holy Spirit to empower you to do it.

- Just Stay

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. "Your son is here," she said to the old man.She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened. Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed.All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile.

He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients. Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.

"Who was that man?" he asked.

The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.

"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life." "Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I knew right away there had been a mistake, But I also knew he needed his son, and his Son just wasn't here.

When I realized that he was too sick to tell

Whether or not I was his son,

Knowing how much he needed me, I stayed."

I came here tonight to Find a Mr. William Grey.

His Son was Killed in Iraq

Today, and I was sent to Inform him. What was this Gentleman's Name? The Nurse with Tears in Her Eyes Answered, Mr. William Grey.............

The next time someone needs you ... Just be there. Stay.
-
D. Conclusion: Are you heading for the crown of righteousness?

The Issue of Facebook

31st January, 2010
Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

Colossians 1:24-29
Main Idea: To use facebook to to witness for Jesus.
Objectives: a. To challenge the congregation to be like apostle, a servant of God, to present the word of God in its fullness. b. To challenge the congregation to use facebook to witness for Jesus.

A. Introduction- How much effort have you put in to help to initiate people around you or people who are in your network into the kingdom of God? To come to know Jesus, be saved and become his disciples. We have learnt from the Purpose Driven Life and of course the bible, this is our mission on earth.
- The question now is how instrumental are we in making that happen. Have you been working hard to achieve the mission here on earth?
- You have so many people in your network, but have ever witnessed to them using John 3:16, your testimonies? Nowadays, you can reach out to people so easily in your network. Especially, with the latest technology of internet, website, email, friendster, facebook, etc, you can reach countless number of people. But, how much have you put in?
- Let us see how apostle Paul had worked so hard for Christ and His body, the church, in his days. Apostle had died so long ago, but his writings continues to impact the world to do missions and disciple. I am greatly impacted by him and I pray that all of us will do the same.

B. See how apostle Paul had worked so hard for Christ and His body, the church.
- Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians in order to correct the wrong teachings of heresy which was commonly taught at his time. The heresy was gnosticism at its early stage. Basically, gnosticism believes spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil.
- So, to accomplish the goal of correcting the early believers from believing in gnosticism, he exalts Christ throughout the letter. In doing so, he told us how much effort he put in for Christ. Now, let us take a close look at the those verses in the passage today. Of course there other passages in this letter and other letters written by him that showed how hard he worked for Jesus.
- In verse 24, he said that he rejoiced that he could suffer for the Colossians as he was jailed because of the gospel where he preached the good news of Christ’s salvation. As a result many come to be saved in Christ and formed Christ’s body, the church.
- In verse 25, we are told that he was willing to pay the price as he was called by God, commissioned by God to present God’s word in its fullness, in its completion to the Colossians. In verse 26, we see that he paid the price of suffering to reveal the mystery of God in salvation which was not just for few individuals who are privileged to know but it is for the saints whom God called. And to these saints, like you and me, he said in verse 27, we are entrusted tell the Gentiles the glorious riches of the mystery in Christ, the salvation in Christ. So he said, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorius riches of mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Apostle Paul regarded himself and the Colossians as saints whom God had chosen to disclose the mystery of salvation in Christ. Therefore, he desired very much to make known the mystery of salvation to the Gentiles. Do you have that desire and excitement like apostle Paul? I pray that you do.
- Now, in order to make known Christ salvation for the Gentiles, Paul said in verse 28, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.” To achieve his purpose of making Christ’s salvation known, he said we have to use all wisdom. The wisdom is referring to ways and means, ideas or anything that can help people to come to know Christ and become a matured disciple. His challenge to the Colossians is to present everyone perfect, matured as a disciple in Christ. So, you need to ask yourself today, with all the resources you have, how can you proclaim, admonish and teach people with all wisdom to present them as matured in Christ. How do you do this inside and outside the church?
- With this, apostle Paul went on to say in verse 29, “To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” You see how he worked hard to achieve the end of bringing Christ salvation to the Gentiles. He said, he laboured, he struggled with the God given divine help, the energy coming from God to preach the gospel. In other words, he used all the God given resources to achieve God’s desire for him, that is the preaching of gospel that resulted in maturity in Christ.

C. Applications
- After knowing how hard apostle Paul had laboured to present everyone perfect, matured in Christ, how do you respond to him?
- Will you also come along and become God’s servants to present the word of God in Christ salvation in its fullness to the people around you and in your network? Will you pay the price like Paul to do it? Will you sacrifice like him?
- Secondly, will you use your God given wisdom to present everyone perfect, matured in Christ? One application today based on this passage of scripture is to really tap on the present modern technology like your blogs, email facilities, friendster, facebook, etc to witness for Jesus and present Christ so that through your testimonies, people in your network come to know Jesus and become his disciples.
- Especially, facebook is so widely used nowadays, I believe it is a God given wisdom for us to tap into so that we can use it for witness purpose. Lots of people have abused it and waste a lot of time in using it as entertainment. We must use it from a different angle and perspective, to make our life count for Jesus even in the facebook. How? By giving testimonies of how you come to know Jesus and how you live as a disciple of Jesus.

D. Conclusion.
- Facebook must be a means that we can capitlaize to introduce Christ to our network of friends. Will you take up the challenge?

Are You Robbing God?

17th January, 2010

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Malachi 3:6-12
Main Idea: Do not rob God.
Objectives: a. To teach the congregation not to rob God. b. To teach to do tithing and make a plan to do it.

A. Introduction
- In the whole bible, the word of God, with all teachings that exhort disciples of Jesus to do many things, and you learn today, in the Old Testament, the old covenant, in the book of Malachi, there is such a thing as robbing God.
- Everything on earth belongs to God, whether you possess it or not, everything belong to God. It was so in the OT and also, the same today.
- Why God still said to the Isralites in verse 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.” I shall tell you the answer after I explain to you how Israelites robbed God.
- Let us see how Israelites robbed God.

B. How Israelites robbed God?
- In the book of Malachi, the prophet was speaking in the context where lots of Israelites had come back to Israel after exiles in foreign countries after 500 BC. They came back after the prophetic activity of prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the returned exiles were under the governor Zerubbabel.
- In 433 BC, Nehemiah, the cupbearer of the Persian King, after rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem returned to the service of the Persian King, and during his absence the Jews fell into sin once more. Later, Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem to discover that the tithes were ignored, the Sabbath was broken, the people had intermarried with foreigners, and the priests had become corrupt (Neh 13:7-31). Several of these same sins are condemned by Malachi. And not tithing and gave offerings were one of the sins.
- When prophets Malachi condemned the sin of Israelites, he put it as robbing God in verse 8. This is all to do with God’s requirement in Leviticus 27:30-33, where it says, a tithe of the grain, the herd and flock is holy and belong to God. And then, it verse 34, it goes to say that they are commands given by God to Moses to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. The basis of tithing for the OT is that tihing is something designated by God. It belongs to God. This answers my question on whether we rob God or not.
- So, when the Isrealites did not do tithing, they robbed God.
- That is the big deal about OT tithing Another big deal about not tithing is found in verse 9, the whole nation of Israelites was under curse. It was the discipline of God for them.
- However, as an encouragement to them, prophet Malachi who was inspired by God also said that they could test God in tithing to see if God would bless them with opening of floodgate of heaven (verse 10), it refers to blessing in terms of supply of God. God would also take care of their crops and prevent them from the attack of the pests and make sure that they had good harvest.


C. Applications
- Now, you may like to ask if the same teaching of the OT apply to us or not.
- I believe that we are not at all free from the OT covenant that God made with Abraham. We are binded by it. If God required His children in OT to take care of the temple by submitting their tithes and offering, today, we have the church, we are required to do the same.
- In fact, Jesus in his rebuking of Pharisees he affirmed the tithing. He condemned them for doing it for show and it becomes very superficial. As a result, tithing was not done from their heart.
- You can see if you are not careful, you may rob God also. Whatever you earn, you must realize, even before it belongs to you, it actually belongs to God, at the end of the day, what you earn belongs to God and it is for your stewardship. So, whatever you get, God says 10% belongs to Him; designated to belong to Him. So, if you do not give to Him what he requires, then, we are answerable to Him. We rob God.
- What it takes to tithe? For the Israelites, it takes repentance to tithe again. Prophet Malachi said they need to return to God in verse 7, “...Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty.”
- For us to tithe, it takes repentance also. We must confess our sin of not tithing to the house of God despite the prophet’s challenge to test and see God would open the floodgate of heaven. I have 4 children, me and my wife practised tithing, we have tested the faithfulness of God’s provision for our needs.
- In order for repentance from not tithing to happen, you must be convinced to tithe. Now, I believe you have to be spiritually becoming more matured, only then, you will tithe. In other words, your relationship with Jesus has to be good, in order for you to obey God’s teaching in the Bible.
- If you are not tithing, I pray that you will pray and work out a plan to do it. I encourage you to set outside an amount in your monthly salary for the purpose of tithing. The amount may not be 10% at first. You may like to increase it as the months go by and in the end you will achieve tithing, do the heart desire of Jesus.
- Remember, do it willingly and not reluctantly.
- This can be your new year resolution.

D. Conclusion
- Be a good steward of God what God has blessed you with. Do not rob God and begin to tithe and make a difference for Jesus.

Exercise Your Spiritual Gifts

10th Jan, 2010

Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng

Posted By Teresa Han

Romans 12:1-8

Main Idea: Need to exercise your spiritual gifts

Objectives: a. To explain how to present our bodies as living sacrifice. b. to teach the congregation to identify their spiritual gifts and exercise them.

1. Introduction

- When we become christians and disciples of Jesus, we are given by God many blessings and privileges. But a lot of times, we do not know the word of God/ the bible well, so we are unaware of blessings and privileges. So, even though has given us a particular blessing, example, a spiritual gift, we do not know and of course we do not use it to build up the body of Christ.

- 1Corinthians 12:7, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” Apostle has put it so clearly that every christian or disciple of Jesus is given the manifestation of the Spirit. Then it is followed by verses 8 to 11, where it lists the spiritual gifts like message of wisdom, message of knowledge, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, etc.

- Do you know what spiritual gifts God has blessed you with?

- Apostle in his wisdom and revelation of the Holy Spirit, he taught the Roman Christians and disciples of Jesus at that time how to present their bodies as living sacrifices and in the process, he exhorted them to exercise their spiritual gifts.

2. How can you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God?

- Apostle Paul, in the first 11 chapters of Romans spoke very much about Christian doctrinal beliefs and how Christians should relate to Jews. Then he went on in chapter 12 today, he taught them to live as a christian, as disciple of Jesus.

- I am always amazed by the teachings of Jesus, Paul and all the biblical writers of God’s word. One thing I notice about our Lord Jesus and apostle Paul is this: they always teach us to surrender our life totally to God.

- You see in verse 1, he exhorted us to offer our bodies as living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. And you do it, he says this is your spiritual act of worship.

- Apostle Paul went on to teach us how to present our bodies as living sacrifice.

- He taught in verse 2, for us not to be conformed to the pattern of this world.

- And then, in verse 3, he taught us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given us. So, you see whatever spiritual power we are given by God, we need to use it in all humility. We have no basis for a superior attitude or self righteousness.

- After dealing with our attitude, then, he went on to mobilize the Roman Christians and all christians today, in the context of offering our bodies as living sacrifice, he exhorted us in verses 4-8 to exercise our spiritual gifts.

- Basically, in these few verses, he exhorted us to see that we are different parts of the body of Christ, and like different body parts, each one of us has different functions. We need to exercise our God given functions, in this case different spiritual gifts.

- That is why in verse 6-8, he says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging; let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

3. Applications

- Part of the process of offering your body to Christ is exercising your spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ.

- And so, my first point of application today to you is you need to identify your spiritual gifts in order to exercise it. If you do not you possess it, then, you need to find out. I have a 125 questions test to help you to identify your gifts. You may like to get it from me or brother Tien Cheh Onn.

- Secondly, use the spiritual gifts according to God’s purpose of building up the body of Christ; strengthening it; making it more matured; at the end of the day, we all become stronger disciples of Jesus.

- Thirdly, we need to help one another to find out our spiritual gifts. You need to test your ability in various ministries. Example, by coming for prayer meeting; leading worship or singing in worship; praying for the sick; counseling or helping the troubled; giving to the needy; teaching in Sunday School, GB, BB, MJYF, small group bible studies, etc. If you see someone who is effective in doing something for the Lord; affirm him or her by encouraging him or her, or go to him to tell him you have been ministered by him or her. Also, we all can pray to God to seek for the spiritual gifts.

4. Conclusion.

- Be a good steward to spiritual gifts which God has blessed you with.

Jesus the Lamb of God, the Focus of Our Ministry

3rd Jan, 2010
Written By Rev. Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

John 1:29-34
Main idea: Jesus, the centre of focus of your ministry
Objectives: a. To teach the significance of allowing Jesus to be the centre of focus of your ministry b. To preach so that the congregation will know how to let Jesus to be the centre of their life.

A. Introduction
- What/ who is the centre of focus of your life? Your ministry? As you you make disciples among your children; in Sunday School; MJYF; BB; GB; Small Groups. Why is it so crucial?
- I have been meditating a lot these recent years. I even meditate about why Methodist churches and other church denominations closed down one by one.
- We may give a lot of reasons but I strongly believe that it has to do with the word of God, the gospel, the right theology, that the church has not been faithfully teaching, preaching and spreading it.
- In our church today, we may have done a lot of activities, programes, and a lot of money is spent but we may not have the kind of impact like the events that unfold in the book of Acts.
- I am of the strong belief that if our programes and activities do not glorify Jesus; if there is no Jesus in our ministry; if Jesus is not the main motive our ministry; if Jesus is not the motivation of our life as a disciple, then, we miss the whole point in Christianity. As disciples of Jesus, we miss Jesus, we miss everything on earth.
- You miss Jesus in your life, in your ministry, you miss the sacredness of the church. The sacred power of God that He bestowed on the universal Church, you miss. You will not have power and you will not godly characters; you will not morality. The church of God definitely loses its power and impact in the society.
- As we drive toward Spreading scriptural holiness and transforming the nation, you why we must not miss Jesus as the centre of focus of our life and ministry?
- After reading today’s message, I strongly believe John the Baptist is not very certain of his role as making the way straight for Jesus, but he also knows the centre of focus of his ministry is Jesus, the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (verse 29)

B. Jesus is the centre of focus of John the Baptist’s ministry.
- Why John the Baptist regard Jesus as the centre of focus for his ministry?
- The answer is found in verse 29, he comes to take away the sins of the world.
- Do you believe human sin is the greatest problem of mankind? And Jesus can overcome it. The Lamb of God can overcome it. If not, he is not qualified to be our saviour. He cannot be centre of our focus.
- Let us see how John the Baptist let Jesus be the centre of his ministry.
- You see in verse verse 31 how he confessed that he baptized in order to reveal Jesus to Israel, so that Jews will know Jesus is the saviour sent by God.
- Brothers and sisters, when you function as a disciple of Jesus, when you serve, do you present Jesus to people? Is Jesus being made known to your audience? Are people attracted to Jesus because of you? Because of your prayers? Your encouragement? Your help? ETC.
- Also, John the Baptist supported his argument that Jesus was the Lamb of God, sent by God, because God has allowed him to witness the coming down of the Holy Spirit like a dove from heaven on Jesus and that is the sign, that Jesus, the Lamb of God will baptize with Holy Spirit, the son of God in verses 32 to 34.
- You can imagine how he allows Jesus, the Lamb of God, to be the centre of his focus in his life and ministry. He witnesses with his own eyes, the Holy Spirit like a dove came down on Jesus. That divine encounter makes him feel that Jesus was really the son of God, the saviour and He is worth to be regarded as the centre of his focus both for his life and ministry.

C. Applications.
- Why is Jesus the centre of focus of our ministry so important? From my explanation just now, you know you miss Jesus as your motive, your motivation, your centre of focus, you miss everything in Christianity. You miss the sacredness of Christianity; the personal relationship with God, in the person of Christ.
- How to let Jesus be the centre of focus of our ministry?
- a. Be Christ-liked and so His missions. In your daily life, whatever you want to do, always ask the question, what does Jesus desire me to do? Am I pleasing him or not? Am I like Him if I do this.
- b. Define everything in your life in Christ’s term. Do not be like the rest of the world in this new year. Do not define everything in terms of money, fame, status, pride, standard of living and material wealth Be transformed by the word of God today to measure everything in terms of Jesus. Ask yourself is this or that for Jesus. What will Jesus gain through you? Ask Jesus what is the price to be paid if you make certain decision.
- c. Be prepared to make sacrifice and love like Christ. I am most excited about this point because you get this right, you get the rest right. When you count the price to pay that Jesus desires you to pay, you know how much you love Jesus; how much you are like Jesus in terms of Christ.
- In all these applications, you find that Christ’s word for you is all in the bible.

D. Conclusion.
- Define your life in Christ’s term.